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Photograph @CigarIli
New Beginning
Philip Ili Barake pairs Papa’s Pilar Dark 24 Year Old Rum with a Lancero Cigar from the Arturo Fuente line,made with full Dominican Republic leaves and is not part of the standard Opus X line.
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Philip Ili Barake
Philip Ili Barake, Cigar Sommelier, from Chile and contributing writer for "Got Rum?" magazine.
New Beginning
It is very hard to start a new year, trying to put together an attractive pairing. During 2013, Paul Senft reviewed Papa’s Pilar Dark 24 Year Old, a Solera rum aged in American barrels and finished in Spanish Sherry barrels. I liked Paul’s description about the coffee, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg notes. I knew this rum could go very well with a cigar, but which one?
During my last trip to Miami I was given a bottle as a gift. I knew right away I would use it in one of my pairings for 2014. I didn’t want to wait too long to taste it, so I opened up the bottle right away, trying to get a better idea of which cigar to use. Most people who come across a rum like this one would assume that it is a good match for just about any cigar, but one must be careful, as it is not that easy!
The day before the pairing I decided to try the rum neat. It truly reminds me of coffee and vanilla a lot, with hints of dry figs and Sherry, making the cigar selection a tougher task. The following day I noticed that I had left my snifter, uncovered, on the table. The aroma of caramelized coffee was permeating the room. My thoughts turned immediately to a cigar I had received in Miami, so I turned to the humidor and took it out. It is a Lancero (7.5” in length, 41 ring gauge) from Arturo Fuente, one of my favorite brands. It is made with full Dominican Republic leaves and is not part of the standard Opus X line. It has a Maduro wrapper and a black band on top of the cedar casing.
To better match the cigar to the rum’s tough character, I decided to add an ice sphere to my glass. Ice spheres, made with distilled water, do not melt as quickly as ice in typical cube form, preserving the flavor of the rum for a longer period of time. At this point I proceeded with the lighting of my cigar.
The beginning of the cigar was marvelous, perhaps the draw was a bit tight initially, but the pairing was almost perfect: the peppery and orange peel notes from the cigar were being matched perfectly with the rum.
Meanwhile, the rum continued to showcase its dominant notes of coffee, vanilla and a bit of cocoa, probably enhanced by the pairing with the maduro cigar and something I had hoped for when I envisioned the pairing.
Shortly thereafter, the cigar started burning evenly and its notes began to fade in with those from the rum. The ashes were evenly distributed and very white, a testament to the soil where the tobacco was cultivated and to the craftsmanship behind its fabrication.
As I approached the second third of the cigar, the nutmeg and coffee notes from the tobacco started to dominate the pairing. At this point I had to shift from drinking the rum with ice to drinking it straight, in order to maintain the balance. Lancero cigars, regardless of their brand, will become more and more aggressive as you smoke them. For this reason this shape of cigars are not recommended for beginning smokers, but rather for “Lancero Lovers,” as they say on the boxes of Cohiba Lanceros.
Switching to drinking the rum straight definitely helped, the aggressiveness of the cigar was kept in check with the even sweeter notes from the rum. This balance between bitter and sweet continued to work into the final third of the cigar.
It is possible some will think this was a simple pairing to make, others may suggest that this Arturo Fuente cigar should be smoked with something other than a rum, but I like to be defiant, to search for all the learning opportunities in this arduous quest for pairing perfection. I know perfection is not attainable, but it is good to look for it in everything we do in life.
2014 will bring many pairing surprises, some more unusual than others, but all equally enticing. I wish you all much success in this new year, I promise you I will continue to bring you new ways to enjoy your cigars and rums.
Cheers,
Philip Ili Barake
Philip@GotRum.com